90

THE YOUTHS CABINET.

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Nineveh. So he went outa little dis-
tance from the city, where he could have
a good view of it, and made him a tent,
determining to remain there until the’
matter which lay so near his heart was
decided. The sun was very hot there;
and God “ prepared a gourd, and made
it'to come up over Jonah, that it might
be a shadow over his head.” Jonah
was delighted with this gourd. But the
very next day, God sent an east wind,
and destroyed the gourd. Poor Jonah!
when the sun rose, the heat was very
severe; and he fainted, and said again,
that it was better for him to die than to
live. Now comes the lesson which the
Lord meant to teach the prophet. “Do-
est thou well to grieve* for the gourd ?”

“I do well to grieve,” he replied, “ even

unto death.” Then said the Lord,
“Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for
which thou hast not labored, neither
madest it to grow, which came up in a
night, and perished in a night; and
should not I spare Nineveh, that great
city, wherein are more than six-score

thousand persons, that cannot discern
_ between their right hand and their left
hand, and much cattle ?”

This gourd, that Jonah mourned over
so much, is described by Jerome, acele-
brated father in the Christian church,
who flourished in the fourth century, as
a kind of shrub, having broad leaves like
the vine, affording a very thick shade,
and supported by its own stem. It
grows very abundantly in Palestine, and
chiefly in sandy places. If one throws
the seed upon the ground, it springs up
little here from the translation in our English version.

I think the idea of grief, rather than anger, is conveyed
in the original.

immediately, and grows wonderfully fast.
Within a few days after the plant is out
of the ground, it becomes quite a little
tree. The fruit of this shrub is of a tri-
angular form, with three sharp- pointed
edges.

It is proper to mention, however, that
there is some little doubt as to what par-
ticular plant the gourd was. The con-
test respecting this question grew so high
between Jerome and Augustine, who
lived at the same time, that, according to
some historians—we hope that part of
the story is not true—these two venera-
ble fathers absolutely proceeded from
hard words to blows, and tried to beat
the truth into each other’s heads with
their fists! It is said, too, that Augus-
tine accused his friend Jerome of heresy,
at Rome, because of his opinion respect-
ing the gourd. How ridiculous! espe-
cially as neither of these men pretended
to have seen the plant which he had fixed
upon as the one mentioned in Scripture !

 

Vanity of Elizabeth.

ALEIGH informs us that Queen
Elizabeth, in the days of her de-
| | crepitude, ordered all pictures of
herself, done by artists who had
not flattered her ugliness, to be collected
and burned; and in 1593, she issued a
proclamation forbidding all persons, save _
“ especial cunning painters, to draw her
likeness.” She quarreled at last with
her looking-glass, as well as with her
painters. During the latter years of her
life, the maids of honor removed mir-
rors, as they would have removed poison,
from the apartments of royal pride.